Latest Area News Headlines

ST. PAUL – Today, with little fanfare, Governor Mark Dayton signed a bill into law that creates a patient registry under the Department of Health relating to the therapeutic use of medical marijuana.

It authorizes the use of medical cannabis in limited forms for certain qualifying medical conditions and regulates its distribution and manufacture.

The bill also creates a task force to conduct an impact assessment on medical cannabis therapeutic research and provides for certain criminal and civil protections for parties involved in the registry program.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – Murray County Central seventh-grader Alyssa Boynton of Slayton started out strong Wednesday morning at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, surviving the first two rounds. But the third round proved to be her nemesis, as did the word ‘haricot,’ which is a ripe seed or unripe pod of several beans.

Kellen Rodriguez of Fairmont also misspelled his word ‘equipollent’ in the third round. Three other Minnesota students, Shane DeSilva of Austin, Lauren Crabtree of Brainerd and Mark Kivimaki of Edina spelled words correctly in round 3, but only Kivimaki will move...

SLAYTON - Our best wishes go out to Alyssa Boynton today! She and four other Minnesotans are among the 281 competitors in the preliminaries of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which begin this morning in Washington DC.

WORTHINGTON – The Buffalo Ridge Drug Task Force is back from the annual Canadian-American Drug Conference at Grandview Lodge in Nisswa, where, as we told you last week, they received the 2014 Minnesota State Association of Narcotics Investigators Task Force of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award.

This is the second time the group has received the award for task force of the year since they formed in 2005, having been named drug task force of the year in 2009.

Commander Troy Appel said the ripples of a case they investigated that started with a routine search warrant were...

WORTHINGTON – The Achievement Center sale is underway at the arena on the Nobles County Fairgrounds, and continues through June 6 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. All proceeds of the sale go directly to The Achievement Center, which helps disabled adults learn skills that they can use for jobs in the community and at TAC.

JACKSON - A New York Times bestselling author with a strong local following will be in Jackson County this week to meet with fans and conduct research for his next book.

William Kent Krueger, author of the bestselling Cork O’Connor mystery series, will make a public...

WORTHINGTON – The Worthington Regional Health Care Foundation has joined forces with the Worthington Area YMCA to match dollar for dollar pledges made to the 2014 Strong Kids Campaign, up to $70,000.

YMCA Executive Director Andy Johnson said he is extremely excited to have the opportunity to use the money to support Y programs, including the Jami Cummings Learn to Swim program. That particular type of program has been a dream of his since he started at the Worthington Y in 1999, and the matching funds from the health care foundation is step one toward giving the program an extra...

WORTHINGTON – Congratulations to the Buffalo Ridge Drug Task Force! Thursday night during the annual Minnesota State Association of Narcotics Investigators Conference in Brainerd, the task force was presented the Outstanding Achievement award for their contributions to drug enforcement.

According to Nobles County Sheriff Kent Wilkening, the task force has made 621 arrests over a five-year period. One particular case, evolving from a single suspect interview, turned into a long-term coordinated investigation that led to a large-scale drug distribution network that netted 158...

WORTHINGTON — Students from Worthington High School (WHS) who are involved in the Nobles County Integration Collaborative are hosting a fundraiser to send care kits to families in Venezuela as part of the “Change Starts with You” project. They will have a Zumbathon fundraising event from 6 to 8 p.m. today in the St. Mary’s gymnasium, 1206 Eighth Ave.

The Zumbathon will be a festive event featuring glow sticks, face painting, neon colors and lots of dancing. The “Change Starts with You” goal is to provide 250 kits and ship them off by May 30.Donations of household items will be...

WORTHINGTON - U.S. Senate candidate Chris Dahlberg stopped in Worthington Wednesday evening with his mobile front porch to campaign. A two-term St. Louis County Commissioner and Iraq war veteran from Duluth, Dahlberg is vying for the Republican endorsement at the party’s May 30 convention in Rochester. He faces five other Republicans in the race.

The winner of the Republican primary will go on to face incumbent DFLer Al Franken in November.

WORTHINGTON – A Worthington man is in custody after allegedly robbing a victim at gunpoint in the early morning hours Sunday. According to the criminal complaint, Jose Manolo Arevalo Cortez, 32, faces charges of first- and second-degree aggravated robbery.

The complaint states Cortez asked the victim for a ride home from the Long Branch Saloon. The victim told police that he had talked to the man earlier in the evening, so he offered him the ride. When the man got in the van, the victim said the man put a gun in his side and told him to give him everything he had. The victim gave...